


Fanfare

by FakeuForku, iaMDarWiN



Series: This City Never Sleeps [1]
Category: P1Harmony, SF9 (Band)
Genre: Blood, Explosions, Gangs, Gun Violence, Guns, M/M, Mafia AU, Minor Character Death, Other Additional Tags to Be Added, Shootings, Swearing, chanhee is a brat, corrupt factory workers, hiwyoung is bad at remembering names, lots of firearms, sanghyuk is chaotic, stabbings, youngkyun will forever be an intern
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-07-29
Updated: 2020-11-22
Packaged: 2021-03-06 03:42:31
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 3
Words: 8,942
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25586887
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/FakeuForku/pseuds/FakeuForku, https://archiveofourown.org/users/iaMDarWiN/pseuds/iaMDarWiN
Summary: Youngkyun finds a sketchy part-time job that pays way better than it should be for checking that packages aren’t damaged and weigh the correct amount.Little does he know that his slightly sketchy, well-paying job will land him in more trouble than he ever wanted, and a whole other world.The SF9 Mafia AU three whole people wanted.
Relationships: Kim Inseong/Kim Youngbin
Series: This City Never Sleeps [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1855216
Kudos: 10





	1. All he wanted was a job

‘What are you good at?’ As cold eyes scrutinized his whole existence, Youngkyun never felt the need, the want, to vanish as strongly as he did then. All he could ever want right at that moment was to dissolve into nothingness and become nugatory; no more significant than the very air particles he was breathing, invisible to the unclad eye- 

‘C-computers.’ He managed. ‘I can computer. I-I mean I’m good with computers. And programming. And security?’

For a minute he worried that he had said the wrong thing, but then the guy turned around and a ‘follow me’ was thrown his way. He followed him down a long corridor and into a room that was filled with monitors, cords, and other exorbitant tech equipment. 

‘Zuzu.’ One of the scary-looking guys looked up from a corner he sat in hunched over a shiny laptop. ‘Get it working yet?’

Zuzu shook his head. ‘It’s been a pain in my ass all morning.’

The taller boy motioned for Youngkyun to look over Zuzu’s shoulder. A code editor was pulled up and a bunch of variables were underlined in glaring red lines. 

‘If that’s python, format everything and get rid of the semicolons. Otherwise, rename the file to .java or c# or whatever language you’re working in and it should work.’

Zuzu just stared at him like he grew another head, then broke out into a smile. ‘Bro, you’re a genius!’

‘Bitch, you’re just dumb.’ One of the other guys across the room shot back. He too was scowling at a computer monitor. 

‘Uhh, how do you format python?’

Youngkyun pointed at the laptop ‘Can I, uh-’

Zuzu silently handed the computer over.

Youngkyun blinked, surprised that the laptop was outright handed to him. 

‘Uh, you just...highlight this…and hit this...’ with a few keystrokes, the program was formatted. 

‘What? It was that easy?!’ Zuzu wined at an ear-shattering frequency, obviously frustrated. 

‘Hey hey,’ Another guy who was earlier hidden in a corner came up with another laptop. ‘Can you look at this too?’

Youngkyun just nodded. After a few minutes, all the red lines and error messages were gone. When he handed the laptop back the other guy just stared at the screen in amazement. 

‘Great! You like it here? You’re hired! I’ll go tell mom he gets to adopt another kid.’

‘Don't you need approval before all that?’ Zuzu asked drily. ‘Last I remembered, we have a process.’

‘Hey, be respectful to your elder’s brat! You couldn’t fix your shit either. We should just fire you and give him your job.’

‘Listen here boomer, at least I’m being conscious of-’

‘I am a whole ass three hundred forty-six days older than you. Stuff it. And we don't really have a hiring process, Zuzzy if you think back to the time you were onboarded.’

‘But that-’

‘You aren't special.’ The guy who had led Youngkyun down the hallway spoke up, startling him. He had forgotten he was there.

Zuzu pouted. ‘Fine. Be if he makes a mess it's all your fault, Darwin.’

He stomped out of the room with Darwin yelling at his retreating form, ‘It’s Dawon you shrimp brained mistake!’

Darwin...Dawon gathered the two laptops Youngkyun had worked on and handed them to him. ‘Let’s go visit mom. I got him from here Yangyang, shoo.’

Youngkyun was already bad with names, and all the people he had met started blurring together in his head. Big nose was Zuzu, cold-eyed desk worker was Yangyang, crazy was Dawon not Darwin, the kid who they were going to meet was mom. How uncreative can someone be when it came to a code name that they stick with ‘mom’? Maybe it was an acronym for something, hopefully not. 

Down more hallways, past more doors, some parts covered in paper and plastic wrap, others covered in what was hopefully rust. The small building he entered forever ago seemed so much smaller than the perpetual maze he had stepped into. Dawon finally stopped at an unvarnished door and barged in without knocking. His sudden intrusion was met with loud protests and after a few minutes of yelling (was that noise a book being thrown?), Dawon exited the room and shut the door behind him. 

‘Give him a minute and he’ll be free.’

A few minutes later, a man dressed in a maroon suit stepped out. While his clothes looked nice and pressed, his hair looked like it had suffered a tornado, and his face suggested he hadn’t slept well or at all within the past month. ‘Gentlemen.’ He acknowledged, and with that, he was gone. 

‘Don't mind him, he has a stick up his ass.’ Dawon waved his hand around. ‘Actually, you might have to mind him. He’ll be your boss soon. Shall we?’ he gave an uncanny smile and held the door open for Youngkyun. 

‘Mom’ was the furthest thing from the endearing nickname the young man was given. ‘Boss’, ‘sir’, or even ‘chief’ were all more fitting. 

‘Don’t worry, he looks intimidating now, but he’s actually a marshmallow that’s slightly burnt on the outside. He’s just mad I caught him and his boyfriend making-’

_ ‘Sanghyuk _ !’

‘What happened to the code names you were so insistent on, Inseongie hyung? And it’s not like you and Youngbin hyung are a secret. Hell, I’m sure even Seokwoo knows, and he’s denser than the walls.’

‘Well maybe if you had the  _ audacity  _ to knock-’

‘It’s called locking your door-’

‘I shouldn’t have to if you learned how to fucking-’

‘What about a sock on the doorknob? Frat life should have warned you-’

_ ‘Yah _ !’ Dawon barely pulled Youngkyun out of the way of a flying copy of CCNA Routing and Switching before it hit the opposite wall with a loud thunk.

Inseong stared at Dawon / Darwin / Sanghyuk like he was debating whether to strangle him or ram him through the thick steel wall of his office. ‘You, new kid.’ He snapped, catching Youngkyun’s attention. ‘You’ve already heard too much. You either work here or get shot. If we run a background check and don't like you, you’ll be shot anyways. Dawon-’

‘Back to code names I see.’

‘Shut up. Where are the projects you and Zuho were working on earlier? I need them done.’

‘Ah, the kid fixed them. Juho was being dumb, and I messed something up, but the kid fixed both of them in the time it takes Seokwoo to finish a meal.’

Inseong just stared at the two of them, ‘Well? The laptops?’

Oh, he was talking to Youngkyun. ‘Ah, right. Uhhh, here.’  _ Don't drop them don't drop them don’tdropthem. _

‘He’s an airhead.’ Inseong said to Dawon, despite Youngkyun standing a few feet from them.

‘Just scared.’ He spoke up, and then suddenly wished he hadn’t.

‘Shakey And brutally honest. Terrible field agent. Tell me kiddo-’

‘Youngkyun.’

‘-where’d you come from?’

‘Uhh, well I was born in Jecheon-’

‘I don't care where you were born. How did you get  _ here _ ?’

‘I’m not sure...sir.’

Inseong made a face. ‘That’s disgusting, how can Chanhee...’ He shook his head. ‘Call me hyung. What were you doing before this?’

‘Trying to get through school. Working a bunch of part-time jobs.’

‘What kind of jobs?’

_ Geez, what kind of integration -  _ ‘Easy jobs like working at convenience stores, cafe baristas, delivering packages, checking packages, working in-’

‘And where did you run packages out of?’ 

‘Uhh, I don't think the warehouse had a name. It was on the edge of town and looked kinda sketchy, but they said they were desperately hiring after a group of workers quit.’ 

Dawon and Inseong shared a look, and Inseong went back to his desk and started typing rapidly on his computer. ‘Where exactly was this warehouse, again?’

‘In between Donggu and Samjeong-dong, I think. It was more in the middle of nowhere, out of the way, wilderness type of building.’

‘Uh-huh, what were the requirements to be hired?’

‘The what?’

‘Did they just offer you a job, or did you have to go through an interview, or a screening, or anything like that?’

‘Uhh, some guy asked if I was lost and I told them I was looking for work. He handed me a box and told me to get started.’

‘Interesting.’

‘Why is that interesting?’ He regretted asking as soon as Dawon shot him a look. 

‘Hey kid, some advice.’ Dawon spoke up from behind him, sitting on the ground in front of a couch. ‘Don't ask questions you don't want answers too.’

‘So why aren't you sitting on the couch.’

‘That’s an answer you don't want to hear. Just follow my lead and don't.’

‘That couch is clean you dipshit.’ Inseong nearly growled from behind his monitor.

‘And Chanhee loves all of us very much.’

‘Now you’re just being a prick. Any idea who hired you, Youngkyun?’

Youngkyun had never thought about it, but, ‘At the warehouse? Actually, the more that I think about it, I don't think I ever heard names. It was always, ‘hey you’, ‘kid in the hat’, ‘boss’, ‘floor manager’. Stuff like that.’

‘And how long did you work there?’

‘A few months? Why is this important?’

‘The warehouse you’re describing is most likely one of ours. And if things really went down as you're describing, we have some protocol rules to brush up on.’ Dawon flicked away dirt from under his nails. ‘How serious is this protocol breach? Is this a Seokwoo or a Jaeyoon situation?’

Inseong didn't gift Dawon with an immediate response, the silence being filled in by the sound of rapid typing, getting louder as Inseong pressed the keys harder in growing frustration. ‘If this is what I think it is, it's a Youngbin situation.’

‘Oh shit.’

‘What's a Youngbin situation?’

‘Bad news. Are you sending him the report or shall I?’

‘I’ll email it to him, that way I can forward it to Chanhee, not like the brat actually looks at his inbox. Sanghyuk, can you inform Jaeyoon and Seokwoo to meet Youngbin and me in Chanhee’s office in an hour? Keep Kyunghyun with you. We’ll see where he fits into all of this.’

‘Sure, mom. Let’s go kiddo. Oh! Just leave the laptops on his desk, but don't actually touch it. You don't know what's-’

‘ _ Get out!’  _ This time it was a javascript manual that was hurled at the ecstatic male. Youngkyun just left the computers on the couch Dawon said not to touch and rushed to follow him before he disappeared behind a corner, never to be found again.

‘Do you guys have a map of this place? Or a blueprint layout?’ Youngkyun found himself asking. 

‘Yeah, it's a lot bigger than it looks from the outside. You’ll get used to it eventually. You will be living here, after all.’

‘What?’ That was not in the job description.

Dawon decided it was a good time to go back to ignoring Youngkyun’s questions. ‘Ah, Jaeyoon! Just the sweaty surrogate I was looking for!’

‘Don't ever say that again. I’ll pay you to never repeat those words again in your lifetime.’ A sweaty male emerged from around a corner looking like he just came from a workout in track pants and a sleeveless shirt. The sight would have been mildly terrifying seeing how defined the guy was, but his face was, for lack of better words, cute and soft, borderline pulchritudinous. It had to be the chipmunk cheeks. Or maybe the faded pink hair? ‘Or I could just end your life now and never have to witness you speak again.’ Never mind. 

‘Rude! How could you do this to me Squeesh!’

‘The only thing that’s gonna go  _ squeesh _ is your head.’

‘Kinky.’

‘Save it for Inseong.’

‘Speaking of our favourite motherly figure-’

‘I don't wanna know. Who’s the new kid? New recruit?’

‘Well, something like that. Don’t get your hopes up, he’s awful in the field. I hear he’s going to Inseong’s one and a half brain intelligent unit. But-’

‘I hope you know Juho has the half the brain in that unit, and not you.’

‘I’m offended.’ Darwin sounded more amused than anything. ‘But Seongie hyung wants you and Rowoon in Chanhee’s office in an hour...well, more like forty-five minutes. Something about distribution warehouses, not following protocol?’

‘Ugh, not another one. Those guys are such a pain to deal with. No matter how many I take out, there always seems to be more. They’re like ants, never truly gone. You burn the anthill, they just relocate.

‘Sounds like a fun time. Speaking of time, we gotta yeet. See you, sweaty!’ Dawon continued down the halls, stride adjusted to something akin to a skip. 

‘Crazy bastard.’ Jaeyoon muttered. He turned to Youngkyun ‘He likes you. Keep it that way, and you’ll do fine here. See ya intern.’

‘Intern?’ from Youngkyun to Kyunghyun to kiddo and now Intern. ‘Bye Jaeyoon-sir.’ He hurried to catch up with Dawon and his obnoxious, purposely off-tune whistling. 

Following Dawon around like a lost dog for an hour wasn’t ideal, but he did get a mini-tour of the place. The building was more than a business and warehouse. Apparently all the members of SF9 (the name of the gang he somehow ended up with) lived here, so it was a mini apartment complex for two floors completed with a gym and an indoor pool. The lowest basement levels were manufacturing and full of heavy machinery, so stay away, and the first level was where all the offices were.

‘What's the deal with the code names? I’m still confused who’s who.’

‘Ah, that. Inseong hyung insisted we have different names to call each other when on missions or deliveries, mainly as a precaution. You’ll learn about them more if you ever help with deliveries. Inseong hyung, or  _ mom _ , also tried to enforce it whenever we get new kiddos, in case they end up being double agents or if they leave shortly after they join, they don't know our names. Only it doesn't work when no one remembers the names you’re supposed to use.’

‘What...’ Youngkyun paused, thinking carefully how to word his next thought. ‘What exactly do you guys do?’

Dawon smiled. ‘You really have no idea what you walked into kid, do you?’ Youngkyun hated the look of almost pity Dawon shot him. ‘Welcome to SF9, the best weapons crib in South Korea! Ever heard of NCT?’

‘Everyone’s heard of NCT.’ NCT was the name of a big tech company located in the heart of Seoul. Neo Culture Technology was a world leader in efficient, clean, green energy, and was famous for its rags to riches story, being started in some college kid’s garage and exploding into a multi-billion won company within a few years. They had been working on a prototype for hydraulic-powered engines or the past few years, and a few months ago they had released the first attempt at a water-powered car. It didn’t work as planned, but the reveal had brought in a huge amount of financial support for the company. 

‘They’re the force that keeps Seoul’s underground running. Remember that big shoot out from a year ago? The one that was on the news for like two weeks and was suddenly dropped?’

Youngkyun could only nod. He really didn't want to relive that night. 

‘That was also NCT, and the guns and grenades they had were from yours truly. Well, a few floors down anyways. That’s why we said we’d shoot ya. You knew too much an hour ago, and you know too much now to be let go from here. I’m sure you met Taeyang, the man at the front. Real friendly, isn't he? He’s our best aim, can hit anything within 2000 meters of him dead on. Now it’s your turn to think of a fun fact about yourself for the company meeting in, oh shit, two minutes ago. Let’s gooooooooo.’


	2. Get in losers, we're going to war

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> vroom vroom

Youngkyun had never considered himself a ‘lucky’ person. Luck was reserved for the important or the blessed, and he was neither of those. It all started on a Tuesday. Tuesdays were awful. There was a pop quiz in one of his classes he was almost sure he failed, he actually had to deal with people at his convenience store part-time job, and his mother was home when he got back. Instead of being able to quietly make a sad instant dinner and spent the rest of his waking hours studying to keep his poor man’s pity college scholarship, he was forced to sit in the kitchen and listen to his mother rant about how he did nothing to contribute to their rapidly declining financial situation, how he was useless as a child, how it was all his fault his father died, all fun uplifting things. 

The week steadily went downhill from there, he got called into the administrative office saying his scholarship was in danger if he didn't get his grades up, the convenience store laid him off due to ‘decline in business’ (their bitch of a manager didn't like him very much) and for some reason his mother was home every night that week. 

The man that dropped a box on his foot was a miracle in disguise. 

That weekend he went out everywhere he could, looking for work, yet conveniently, no one seemed to be hiring part-time college kids. Before he knew it, he found himself on the edge of town with only a nondescript warehouse looming in the distance backed by woods. He was debating whether it was worth approaching when someone dropped a heavy box on his foot.

‘Oh my goodness! I didn't see you there, sunny!’ As the older man profusely apologized, Youngkyun couldn’t find it within himself to stay mad at him. ‘Are you here for work? First day?’

‘Actually, uh, I’m looking for a job.’

‘Well right this way! We have plenty of openings. Let me take you to meet the boss.’

_ Boss _ ended up being a sleazy looking, greasy man that shot Youngkyun  _ looks _ that made him extremely uncomfortable, but he offered a job with the promise of a bi-weekly paycheck and no experience. Looking back on the ordeal, it was a bit strange that the Boss never asked for an ID, nor did anyone offer their name. Most of the time, he worked with music in, but the one day his phone had died, barely anyone spoke to one another, and when they did, it was not in Korean. 

The job was simple. Check the package for outstanding damage, make sure the box weighed what was printed on the slip, make sure everything was taped and ready to ship. Organize the boxes on shelves by where they were going. Load them into the truck when it’s time for shipments to go out. 

It was more manual labour than anything, but it paid fairly well and was surprisingly flexible around his college life (not that he had much of one, to begin with).

Youngkyun wasn’t a controversial person, nor was he social. He usually spent his time in between classes in the library or other hidden corners of the campus studying or reading. Some of his most awkward and uncomfortable moments had been when other students tried to break him out of his anti-social shell. That and his strange new work boss looking at him for too long. He never thought the day would come when he would prefer his old boss over anything, especially not a petulant child pretending to run a weapon syndicate. 

But there he was, being started down by seven other men and brutally scrutinized by an actual teenager. He would almost take his mother’s self-degrading preaching over this.  _ Almost.  _

The kid surveyed the room. ‘Everyone’s here, we can start.’ He turned to Youngkyun. ‘I’m not sure why you’re here, but leave.’ He made a shooting motion that only served to piss Youngkyun off more.

‘He’s actually the new recruit, he’ll be joining my team from now on.’ Inseong mentioned, squished on a couch between the maroon man from earlier and Zuzu. ‘Juho, don't come back. You’ve been replaced.’

‘Thank god.’

The kid frowned. ‘Why am I only hearing about this now?’

Maroon man sighed. ‘Well if you actually _checked_ _your email-‘_

‘World peace would exist. I get it.’ He rolled his eyes. This has to be the kiddo who everyone called a brat.

‘Actually he was hired two hours ago.’ Yang yang spoke up from the corner he was standing in. If his hair wasn’t a tragic shade of blond, he might have pulled off the 2008 emo look.  _ Maybe not, not enough safety pins. _

The teenager glared at the almost emo kid in the corner, then Youngkyun, then went back to Maroon man. ‘This better not be a waste of my time.’

‘Of course not, your majesty. Your time is the equivalent to liquid gold.’ Dawon snorted. He hissed loudly when a very tall man elbowed him harshly in the ribs. 

‘Don't disrespect the boss like that.’

‘I’ll shoot both of you if no one speaks up.’

‘Seokwoo, Sanghyuk. Shut it.’ Maroon man glared at them. 

‘Yes, father.’

Jaeyoon tried to conceal a snort and failed. 

‘Our attention has been brought to the distribution warehouses near the edge of Daejeon. They have been not only skimping on protocol and security measures, but it looks as though they’re the ones in charge of the facility hiring illegal immigrants and paying less than minimum wage and embezzling the rest.’

‘And we know this how?’

‘Our newest recruit, Kyuhyeon-’

‘Youngkyun-’

‘-came here from one of those jobs. Kyeohyun.’ Inseong made a motion to get Youngkyun’s attention. ‘Tell Chanhee what working at the warehouse was like.’

A bunch of responses ran through Youngkyun’s mind at that moment. Chanhee, their boss, their number one guy, was the unsettling teenager? And his name wasn't that hard to get right, was it? Why did he have to get involved with the warehouse situation? All he did was work long hours there and get underpaid. If anything he should be the one compensated! He should-

His thoughts abruptly ended when Yang yang smacked his arm with the butt of a handgun. ‘Speak.’

Maybe he should rethink asking for compensation. 

So, again, Youngkyun recounted his less than desirable experience and even threw in extra details he didn't mention to Inseong earlier, such as the fact that he was paid extra because he could fluently read and write in Korean. And the fact that the break room was an unspoken drug dealing spot. He wasn't sure what he was expecting from the teenager, but the stoic expression he kept throughout the whole explanation wasn't it. 

‘Ugh, what a pain.’ Was the only reaction he got out of Chanhee by the time he was done. 

‘So what do you wanna do about it, Boss?’ The tall guy, Seokwoo(?) asked. He looked genuinely disturbed over the situation but seemed to be the only one. 

‘We’ll meet them tonight. Don't call in advance, they don't need to know about a sudden surprise inspection. Be ready to go, vans loaded by 22:00 on the dot.’

As Chanhee got up to leave, Dawon spoke up. ‘Wait, you never said who’s going.’

Chanhee paused on his way out the door, turned and said. ‘Think of it as a family field trip. That way the intern can see how we operate, right intern?’ The smile Chanhee shot Youngkyun made his gut churn as it didn't reach his eyes. 

Even after he had walked a good way down the hall, nobody had moved, all still staring at the ground in front of their spots. 

‘Dear god he’s pissed.’ Zuzu exhaled.

‘Well,’ Youngbin started, standing up from his spot on the couch. ‘Right, Taeyang, get the vans loaded with any needed firearms and ammo. Seokwoo, help him haul crates down. Juho, uproot any documents we’ll need, and see if you can get names of who works where and what authority they have. Sanghyuk, help him and dig up financial records. Inseong, scout the area and take out any surveillance that’ll get in the way. Intern, help Inseong with warehouse locations. Jaeyoon, come with me. Get your work done quickly and you may be able to get in a nap before we have to leave tonight.’ 

Dawon, Sanghyuk? Sanghyuk sighed loudly. ‘I hate these nights.’ And then after a hard stare from Youngbin, ‘YES FATHER!’ accompanied with a straight posture and a salute. He grabbed Zuzu by the elbow and started to drag him out of the office despite his loud complaining. ‘We're gonna be bestest of buds by the end of this.’

‘Hyung WHY?’

Yangyang and Seokwoo had left right after they had received their assignments, which left Inseong glaring at his handwritten notes and Youngbin quietly talking to an animated Jaeyoon. ‘Let's go, Intern, we got stuff to do. Follow me.’ Inseong stood up and snapped his notebook shut. 

__

Youngkyun never wanted to sit ever again. He had only been bent over a monitor for three hours but he was already sick of everything. How did people do this all day for a living? He glanced over to Inseong, only to see him still diligently hunched over his monitor, typing away so fast it was a miracle his keyboard didn't spontaneously combust. 

How did he do it? Youngkyun didn't even know what he was looking at or what he was doing anymore. It all started to blur together, all the words and file names, all the black text on a blinding white background blended together, making one giant blob. Suddenly he couldn't  _ read- _

Dawon had never chosen a better moment to burst through the door. Well, two hours ago would have been ideal...

‘What do you want? I’m working.’ Inseong didn't even look up to see who burst into his oh-so-quiet office. Working three hours in almost absolute silence was death, Youngkyun decided. 

‘I think we found who we’re looking for, we just want the intern to confirm it.’

Youngkyun looked up in surprise. ‘Why me?’

‘You were there, weren't you?’ Zuzu said from the doorway. 

All he could do was shrug. ‘I rarely ever saw them. No one used names either, and there were a bunch of days the Boss didn't even show up.’

‘Ugh, stop being so pessimistic, Intern. It’ll get you nowhere in life. Now look at this.’ Dawon slammed his laptop over the one he was using, probably cracking the screen of the one underneath it in the process. 

‘What am I looking at?’ All that was on the screen was a very zoomed-in, very pixelated place in the middle of nowhere on google maps.

Darwin let out a loud dramatized sigh and plopped down on the couch besides Youngkyun, covering his eyes with his arm. 

Inseong rolled his eyes. ‘If you’re not doing anything, leave.’

‘I have to do  _ everything  _ around here.’ Dawon snatched the laptop back and zoomed out two clicks. ‘ _ See _ ? Mother, your intern is useless.’

‘Bitch, did I ask?’ Inseong still hadn’t looked up from his monitor.’

‘Dawon-ssi-’

‘Oh god don’t call me that, my name is Sanghyuk.’

‘Sanghyuk-ssi-’

‘Kid how old are you? You a kid aren't you? Call me hyung.’

‘Ajusshi-’

‘Jesus Christ I get no  _ respect in this house _ -’

‘Isn’t respect earned, nitwit?’

‘Who the fuck are you calling-’

‘Watch your fucking mouth-’

‘Hyung.’ All of them stopped and stared at Youngkyun, which only made him feel more unnerved. ‘You have this zoomed into the middle of the Atlantic ocean. The warehouse I used to work at was in Daejeon.’

Sanghyuk just stared at him like he dropped something on his foot. ‘Well, then why didn’t you say something?’

‘He tried to. You're just dumb.’ Zuzu moved from the doorway to another one of the couches in Inseong’s office. 

‘Mooooooooooom, Zuzzy’s bullying me-’

‘You deserve it.’ Inseong’s voice was flat, devoid of any pity or understanding. 

‘I cannot BELIEVE-’

‘Here.’ Youngkyun was getting sick of being in the middle, so he grabbed the laptop and navigated google maps to approximately where he thought the warehouse was. All he remembered was that it was in a wooded area on the edge of town, so it was hard to spot from the sky view of the droid camera. ‘I think the warehouse is somewhere around here. Anything else you need?’ 

‘Was that the only place you worked at?’

‘Concerning your organization, I think so.’

‘You’d be surprised.’ Zuzu muttered. ‘But that’s the only warehouse you worked at? The only place where you handled packages?’

‘Yeah.’

Sanghyuk pulled a legal pad and a cheap pen out from what looked like the couch cushions. ‘And how does that make you feel?’

‘Inseong hyung?’ Inseong actually looked up and paused his typing. ‘Can I hit him with the laptop?’

‘Bold of you to assume you’d be able to hit me in the first place you  _ absolute amateur-’ _

‘I have books that would do a better job. Feel free to have at him.’

‘Don’t make me tell Chanhee.’ Even Youngkyun could tell the threat was empty. 

‘Chanhee doesn't give a shit about you.’ Zuzu scoffed.

‘Excuse you, he loves me.’

‘If we were on an abandoned island, you’d be the first to go.’

‘Why is today bully Dawon day?’

‘Whaddya mean? Every day is bully Darwin day.’

‘You’re on thin fucking ice, you goddamn  _ dodo bird _ -’

‘Stop bickering like children and give me the documents I need. I don't have any new emails from either of you and I want them five minutes ago.’ 

‘Yessir.’ ‘Yes, mom.’ The two men uttered. Sanghyuk snatched the laptop out of Youngkyun’s lap and once again the noise level was reduced to angry typing and the buzz of an air circulator. Zuzu left the office, only to return a few minutes later with a different laptop. 

‘Sent you the email.’ He mumbled before sitting down and burying his abnormally large nose in his screen. 

Youngkyun was suddenly hit with the  _ oh-fuck-what-do-I-do-now  _ thought. All Inseong really needed help with was the initial area everything was in, and the older said he would handle the rest.

‘Hey kid,’ Zuzu started, flipping his laptop around. ‘Do any of these guys look familiar?’

The screen was filled with a bunch of faces, resembling an extreme game of Guess Who. One of them he recognized as his sleazy, creepy boss, another was the old man that had dropped the box on his foot and offered him a job in the first place. 

‘That one,’ he said, pointing to a man in the third row. ‘He was the boss. Actually, all we knew him as was Boss. He was there rarely, and no one complained about it. This guy.’ He pointed to the package man, ‘This guy was the one who initially got me the job. I saw him here and there, but I never learned his name. And I think this kid,’ he pointed at a headshot of a much younger man, easily in his 20’s with short hair. ‘This kid was a worker for sure. He didn't speak much Korean, and he couldn't read any either. I think he’s Thai? I only spoke to him a few times, and saved him from a trip to the boss’s office twice.’ The rest of the faces either looked semi-familiar like he had seen them before, or completely new, but no one else stood out to him, not enough to bring up. ‘Oh, I think this dude was also there. He was one of the people who kept up the break room drug exchange going.’

Zuzu just nodded and flipped the screen back around to have it face himself. ‘We got our guys.’

‘Who’s the lucky winner?’ Sanghyuk snorted. 

‘Kim Shidae, Kim Youngsuk, and Seo Hyunjoo.’

Inseong made a face. ‘I never understood how they ended up working for us. I was once in a room with all three of them and I’ve never wanted to strangle someone as much as I did then.’

Zuzu looked mildly shocked. ‘Are they that bad?’

‘They’re...extremely sleazy, for a lack of better words.’ Youngkyun supplied. ‘None of them have a filter, and it only gets worse when they get together. I never knew there were so many degrading ways to refer to someone until I heard Boss talk about all the workers he wanted to, ah, well uh...you get it.’

‘Sounds like someone Taeyang wants to meet very much.’ Sanghyuk mused. ‘Speak of the sharpshooter and hath shall appeareth.’

True to his words, Taeyang and Seokwoo were poking their heads into the office the four of them were working in. Youngkyun still wasn't sure which was who. ‘Is the intern free? Youngbin told us to give him equipment.’ The taller one spoke up. 

‘You dare steal my beloved intern from me? How dare you! You must pay for your actions!’

‘Shut up Sanghyuk.’ Three people harmonized. 

‘Well, since you asked so nicely.’

‘Let’s go, Intern.’ The blond one growled, his form leaving the doorway and skeeting off into the hall. The last thing Youngkyun was eager to do was to follow him, but pissing him off seemed even less desirable. 

The blond kid was out of sight by the time Youngkyun made it out the door and into the hallway, but thankfully his taller compadre was there to help guide him. Down the hall, to the left, down the stairs, down, down, down. How many underground levels could a building even have?

More than he could ever imagine. 

They finally ceased outside a large set of double doors, one of which was propped open by a chunk of metal. Youngkyun peered inside and was greeted with the sight of  _ guns _ . The only time he’d seen a gun was in those deplorable cop action dramas, yet here was a room with its walls easily lined with over a thousand different types of firearms. 

‘What are you just standing there for?’ The taller asked behind him. ‘Go in.’ 

The blond kid was already inside the weapons room, closely examining a bulky machine, ignoring the newcomers. Without looking up, he started rattling off questions Youngkyun had no answers to. ‘How good of a shot are you? What's your range? Any customization preferences? How much recoil can you take? Automatic or manual?’

When he didn't answer, the blond kid actually turned to look at him. ‘Well?’

‘I’ve, uh, never shot a gun before.’

‘Nerf gun it is then!’

‘Do you have any experience with weapons or any form of combat?’

‘I punched a kid once, in like, sixth grade.’

‘So you're useless.’ The blond kid looked and stared right into Youngkyun’s  _ soul,  _ unravelling him bit by bit, taking him apart piece by piece-

‘Uh, yeah?’

The blond kid almost looked shocked at his sudden confession. But instead of saying anything more, he went back to looking around. He rifled through a few bins and came back with what looked like a set of throwing knives. ‘You can be our pack mule for extra ammo then. Meet me at the van twenty minutes early to suit up. I'll see you then.’

And, of course, he just walked out of the room, not saying anything else, with his taller friend following closely behind him. Leaving Youngkyun in the doorway with no idea of how he got to where he was. Even with the brief, incomplete tour from Sanghyuk, he was hopelessly lost.

So he started wandering. The most he remembered was turning a few corners and walking down a bunch of staircases. So to go up would be the most logical, right? His thighs certainly didn't think so. All they wanted to know was if this evil-lair type place has an elevator. 

What time was it even? He had to be at the van...but where even was the van? Outside? How would he get outside? How would he know what time it was? How would he-

‘Oh, intern. Sorry, I don't remember your name. What are you doing in this part of the building?’

Youngkyun had to suppress the sudden urge to hug Jaeyoon. ‘I was left behind. Uh, back there? And I got lost.’

‘Ah, yeah, it's kinda hard to navigate this place in the beginning. Where are you trying to get?’

‘Back to Inseong hyung’s office.’

‘Alright, let’s go...’

‘Youngkyun. I know Inseong hyung butchered it a few times but my name is Youngkyun.’ 

‘Youngkyun. Got it. I’m Jaeyoon. I know we had a run in not too long ago, but I didn't get a chance to introduce myself properly.’ 

The walk back was silent, but the awkward silence, the stifling silence that left Youngkyun searching, scraping the sides of his brain for something, anything to say just so they had something to do other than follow and try to remember the corridors that he passed through again. ‘So what’s gonna happen tonight?’

‘Honestly? I'm not completely sure. Whenever we’ve had situations like this in the past, Chanhee has just let Taeyang and I deal with them, and sometimes Seokwoo if it was bad. Nothing this minor had ever required all of us.’

_ Well, that didn't answer my question at all, thanks.  _

‘I think...’ Jaeyoon started again after scaling another staircase, ‘I think tonight is gonna be more than a usual bust. The people you called ‘boss’, none of them are good men. They were slimeballs when they started to work for us, but now they’re slimeballs that are stealing from us. All the more reason to end them, right?’

‘I thought you guys were a crime syndicate, not some kind of justice warriors.’ Youngkyun wanted to unsay it after it left his mouth, but Jaeyoon didn’t deck him as he had anticipated. 

All he got back was a scoff and a  _ Not quite.  _

The rest of the field trip back was quiet, right until they stopped outside the door to Inseong’s office. ‘Stick with Inseong hyung tonight.’ And then he was off, back into the metal maze of the vast underground.

Inseong claimed he had no more work for him to do, so he ended up dozing off on the couch Sanghyuk told him not to ever touch. After what felt like only a few minutes, he was being shaken awake and led to where the sketchy black van was. 

‘Alright everyone, pile in. Intern, your shotgun. You get to play navigator.’ Inseong tossed him a smartphone that he was grateful he caught.

‘Get in losers, were going to war.’


	3. Get in, Get out, Get...Intern?

‘We’re gonna treat this like a normal bust, so get in, find what we need, get out. We don’t want any additional ruckus today, and we don’t want to leave anything imperial behind. The authorities are already suspicious of us, and as much as I would like to blame NCT for not covering our ass, that’s another story.’ Chanhee snorted. ‘Intern! Give us a rundown of the building.’

The sudden address surprised Youngkyun, he didn't think he would be spoken to, just told what to do. He pulled up a blueprint on a tablet that Inseong had dug up. ‘This is the main foyer, and this leads to a storage area where we kept all the packages awaiting shipment. Uhh, there's a set of stairs on each side of the warehouse that both lead to the second floor where the Boss’s office is. There’s-’

‘Great.’ Chanhee cut him off. ‘Dawon, take Zuzu and Squeesh to check out the first floor. The rest of you head up to the second floor. Intern, Song, stay in the van. Now, move out.’

As they filed out of the cramped van, Inseong leaned over to Youngkyun. ‘You know nicknames right?’

‘Uhhhh, you’re Mom? Or Song? Darwin- wait, Dawon is Sanghuck. And...yeah, that’s all I got.’

Inseong inhaled deeply. ‘Don’t go crazy yet, I’m going off wire, eyes are booting up.’

‘You got it.’ Youngbin replied.

‘Ugh, stop flirting! I don't need a constant reminder that I’m sing-’ Sanghyuk’s banter was cut when Inseong cut the comm circuit. 

‘Alright, listen up. I can only go over this once, and no reminders on wire, got it?’ Youngkyun nodded, suddenly slightly afraid for his life. ‘Chanhee goes by boss or brat, but it may be in your best interest to call him boss. Youngbin and I are Bin and Song, or dad and mom because Sanghyuk is an actual child. Sanghyuk is Dawon, Juho is Zuzu, Jaeyoon is Ethan or Squeesh, Seokwoo is Rowoon, and Taeyang is Yangyang. You... just stick to intern for now. We’ll figure something better out later.’

_Great._

Youngkyun’s head was reeling from all the information he had just been handed within the past fifteen minutes. Apparently, everyone had a code name they went by whenever they had missions or even whenever they communicated over a closed system. Something about not risking anything, identity compromisation, all the fun jazz: he could marginally recollect everyone’s _real_ names. Now he had to memorize codenames, protocol orders, _and_ what colour button did what. He was low key disappointed when the red one didn’t eject or explode anything. The next time he found himself in the van, he swore to himself he would bring either tape and a sharpie or a labelling machine. 

Youngyun stared at one of the many cameras in front of him. Instead of seeing just an empty office, or even the boss drinking alone like he did all too often, it was his boss and two others who he only saw once or twice during his employment cornering someone young looking against the wall. 

Fucking pigs. He suddenly felt a stab of pity for the younger person and their impending fate. 

‘Looks like the only people inside the warehouse are in the boss's office.’ He said into the comm.

‘Aite. Which room is that?’ _Gee, it’s not like we had a debriefing on what was where or anything-_

‘Second level, second door. It’s the only one that has a window in it. The first door is a documents room that I’ve never been in, and the second door to the left on the first level is the staff break room that doubled as a drug hotspot.’ Youngkyun relayed. 

‘Yikes, these guys.’

‘Yangyang, take Rowoon and Zuzu with you and check the break room. The rest of you come with me and we’ll check the documents room. Intern, what’s the other room on the second floor?’

Ah yes, while everyone had a code name, Youngkyun was still _intern_. How quirky. He had an inkling it was on purpose though. 

‘No clue. Never went in there.’

‘Yangyang, when you’re done with the break room, head there. We’ll head to the main office.’

‘Roger.’ 

‘Got it.’

‘K.’

‘Sure, dad.’ Youngkyun couldn’t tell who was saying what, but he would bet money on that last comment being Sanghyuk.

And then the kid on the office camera turned his head. 

Oh shit, he knew that kid: that was the friendly Thai worker he had kinda-not-really conversations with that could be better classified as one-sided ranting sessions because he couldn’t speak Korean and Youngkyun couldn’t speak Thai. He glanced at the cameras again. The infiltration team was nowhere near the offices; they were raiding the document storage room, which didn’t quite live up to its name, and the break room. At the rate they were going, they wouldn’t get to the kid in time. 

_No one's gonna help him? Some world we live in._

How much trouble would he get in...?

‘Hyung, sorry but something came up. Gotta blast.’ He tried not to think about the ' _what the fuck-_ ’ Inseong threw out, nor his screeching to go back. 

It was only after he burst into the boss’s office and had three sets of eyes bearing into his skull did he realize it might have been a good idea to have a game plan.

‘ _Intern, get the fuck out of there, what are you doing-_ ’

‘Uhh, hi. Sorry, this might be a bad time, but I wanted to ask about my last paycheck-’

‘You’re not supposed to be here, kid. What's a pretty thing like you doing here so late at night?’

Youngkyun wanted to retch. ‘I was looking for my friend-’

‘I think he wants to join us.’ One of the others spoke up as he approached the doorway. 

Oh fuck. He wanted to bolt, but he couldn’t, not without his friend. ‘Stay back.’ He brandished the knife he had hidden in his pocket at the other two, but it didn’t even phase them. 

‘You had something this cute working for you? And you didn’t share? My my, you’re getting selfish.’ One of the men stepped towards him, and Youngkyun lashed out, swinging the knife. But the only good it did was nick the man's face and aggravate him more. He grabbed Youngkyun’s wrist and twisted it, so the knife slid out of his grip, then yanked his arm so his back was to the man's chest. The man's other hand painfully gripped his hair. He had never regretted not getting a haircut more. 

‘No!’ That came from the Thai worker, Ten, he remembered. Youngkyun couldn’t see what was happening over his shoulder, but it didn’t sound good. 

‘Ten! Ten get out of here. Go-‘ the man holding him shoved two fingers into his mouth, causing him to gag. 

‘Shut up, whore.’

The more he tried to struggle, the tighter the grip on him got.

‘Stop squealing like a pig.’ Another one of the men slapped him across the face, hard, causing him to let out a noise of pain. 

‘What if we gut him like a pig? How long do you think he’d keep squealing?’

The other man forgot about Ten to go pick up the knife he had dropped. Now Youngkyun was terrified. He tried to kick the other man away, but it only resulted in a more painful position and an elbow to the stomach. 

Then a bunch of things happened at once. There was a scream, a loud bang, and shouting. But the only event Youngkyun was certain of was that he was stabbed. And it hurt—a lot. 

Was getting stabbed supposed to hurt this much? It was a weird feeling, a slight sting at first, like a scratch, but as the knife was twisted deeper the sting exploded into sharp, hot, biting pain. It consumed his entire being, starting in his abdomen where the blade bit into and slowly seeped into the corners of his limbs, burning away at his nerves. 

There was also yelling, lots of yelling. Screaming in his ear where he still has the obnoxious Bluetooth earpiece, yelling behind him (probably Ten), shouting to the side of him, yelling in front of him (oh wait, that was him) Lots of noise, lots of bangs, loud bangs. He must have been dropped at some point, the ceiling was just as depressing as the walls, and something that looked like shoes was in his line of vision. Or were they? It was hard to tell with how blurry everything was. Some of the noises sounded like his name, and a humanoid figure appeared in his vision, but nothing was coherent, nothing made sense. All he knew was the pain. It scorched through his veins, pooling in his side. He wanted to curl into a ball and die, but moving hurt more than laying there. 

The pain in his side flared up again, causing him to cry out at the blinding agony. 

He was being moved, he knew he was being moved. The floor shifted, and his side hurt more. But not as bad as before, this was a dull throb compared to what it was earlier.

He was set down on something rather uncomfortable. He wanted to sit up, to see where he was because all he could hear was loud static ringing in his ears. But when he attempted any movement, everything hurt in sharp waves of pain. Eventually, the pain won out and everything went black.

* * *

These guys had some nerve. 

Months ago, they had come to Chanhee, _begging_ for him to take them in with a promise of profits granted they were given the chance of free range to do what they wanted. Chanhee was neither stupid nor desperate, so he did what he did with most people that come to him asking to work for him: he turned them away with a death threat that if they were to ever get in his way again, he'd kill them. 

Taeyang personally thought things should have ended there, and the second time the trio came crawling back to them they should have been shot at point-blank. As stoic and cold as Chanhee tried to make himself seem to the underground world, all of the members knew he had a closely guarded soft spot. That, and they proposed a few interesting business ideas Youngbin insisted they could take advantage of.

That was how they ended up in the distribution warehouses, working for SF9. Every time they were contacted disregarding payroll discrepancies, they always had an excuse for them. Every time they were confronted about mistreating their workers, they always claimed the worker was problematic and promised to let them go. Every time they were told to be more punctual, they always blamed their late nights and hard work on their tardiness. No matter how despicable they were to the outward eye, they were good businessmen who stayed on top of the shipments and orders. They had been complained about before; in fact, most of the complaints they received came from this very warehouse. But now that Chanhee knew his hospitality had been abused, things were not looking bright for the tres amigos. 

Life wasn't looking so hot for the kid on the floor either. 

He had just started digging through unlocked drawers and cabinets in the dinghy break room, he had already found three different types of illegal substances. The people who worked here had no fear and weren't discrete in the slightest. Taeyang thought he recognized the branding on one of the pills, but that was a thought for later. As he was about to head to the mysterious room on the second floor, the yelling in his inner ear started. It alerted him immediately, as Inseong rarely yelled, especially over the wire. When Inseong raised his voice, it usually set one of the more sensitive members off, such as Seokwoo or Juho. So for him to be yelling at a crucial moment like this-

‘ _Intern get the fuck back in the van. Right. NOW. What in the fresh hell do you think you are doing?! Stop running! You’re supposed to be watching the cameras, leave that to the people who actually know what they're doing! Or act like they know what they’re doing, I’m not sure Dawon- INTERN, get the fuck out of there, what are you doing?_ '

‘ _What the fuck is happening?_ ’ Dawon asked, completely ignoring the half-finished insult.

‘ _The Intern ran into the building and is heading for Boss’s office. Someone get in there before he gets himself shot. Yangyang, you're the closest, take whoever is with you and help him. We only need Kim Shidae alive, have fun with the rest._ '

' _But, do remember to have fun._ ' Chani said. Taeyang could almost hear his smug expression. ' _All I need out of him is answers, but I don't want to have my time wasted by the time I get up there._ '

‘Yes, your majesty.’ Taeyang replied, almost to the main office with Rowoon following closely behind with a Zuzu on the way. 

‘ _Ten, get out of here, go- hurk.’_ That- that had to be the intern. It was the only voice that was semi unfamiliar. 

When Taeyang burst in through the office’s already open door, he was greeted with the sight of a screeching shorter man trying to fight off two men twice his size, someone lying face-up on the floor, and another man that was standing over the person on the floor. 

Before Taeyang said anything, he raised his handgun and shot the man standing over the other person in his thigh. The man let out a grunt of pain but looked angrier than anything. So Taeyang added two more bullets into his same thigh, falling the man.

'Which one is Shidae?' Taeyang asked into his earpiece.

' _The one you just shot._ ' Inseong replied. ' _So, uh, lighten up?_ '

Taeyang snorted. 'Rowoon, Zuzu. Take care of the other two, his majesty has no use for them.'

'On it. Any preferred methods?' Rowoon asked.

'Slowly.'

Taeyang looked to the man who was the root of all the troubles. 'Aren't you a pathetic little thing now?'

'When I'm done with you, you'll wish you were dead! You will rot in hell, and your-' Taeyang cut off his profane dialogue by stepping on the area he had shot moments ago, causing the man to scream.

' _That's enough, Yang._ ' Chanhee spoke up. ' _Take care of the Intern. Ethan, head to the main office and you and I will do the interrogation._ '

' _Why does Squeesh get to do the fun part?_ ' Dawon's voice cracked over the earpiece from his pathetic attempt at whining.

' _Darwin shut up and help Yangyang with the intern._ ' Inseong instructed. ' _Deal with the other kid too._ '

' _Other kid?_ '

' _The one the intern ran after. I think they were friends when he worked here. Just, don't kill him. We'll figure something out for him, right boss?_ '

' _Ugh, fine_.' Taeyang could practically hear the eye roll in Chanhee's voice. ' _But he's your responsibility until I'm done with this, got it?_ '

'Aye eye, captain.'


End file.
